Unless you’ve been directly involved in the immigration process, most Americans don’t understand how legal immigration works. By immigration, I refer here to both the acquisition of Permanent Resident status (a Green Card), and Citizenship, two categories which are distinct from each other.

However, in all practicalities, there are few differences which matter to the “average” immigrant these days, and the only distinction which motivates Green Card holders to advance to Citizenship might be good for the immigrant, but not necessarily for the United States.

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What can a Permanent Resident do and not do?

A Permanent Resident can’t vote. He (okay feminists, or she) is under international travel restrictions as to the number of trips and their duration, to ensure the Permanent Resident is serious about being a permanent resident.

A Permanent Resident can’t get a U.S. Passport, and can’t be called for Jury Duty (which for whatever crazy reason, I don’t see many of them complaining about). They also can’t petition family members abroad to join them.

A Permanent Resident can of course work here, collect welfare and other social assistance (including Social Security in all its forms), and they must pay taxes. They can get a Driver’s License (just like illegals can in so many municipalities!), they can sue and be sued, and they can usually keep their original citizenship. They can also serve in the military.

They can live in the U.S. for the rest of their lives under Permanent Resident status, as long as they don’t kill anyone. Then, they might get deported.

What does a Permanent Resident have to do and know to become one?

Besides filling out the paperwork, nothing. As long as you don’t have a criminal record in your home country, or your home country is so dysfunctional that the U.S. can’t accurately assess your criminal history, you don’t have to know a thing.

You don’t have to speak a word of English, you can think there are only 13 states, that Kim Kardashian is President, and childhood female circumcision is just fine and dandy. (I’ll take two, Mohammed! My younger one is still in the car!)

You don’t have to know a damn thing to come here and live here for the rest of your life under Permanent Resident status. It’s not just that you don’t have to show any knowledge about joining the American culture, you don’t have to demonstrate, at any level at all, that you even want to.

You can continue speaking Farsi to your Taiwanese neighbor, you don’t have to keep your goat off his lawn, and you can scream Allah Akbar until you’re blue in the face, not understanding that makes many of us uncomfortable.

Why does a Permanent Resident become a Citizen?

Many do it to become real Americans. They love us and want to be us. These people, we all adore. Unfortunately, too many do it just to sponsor family members to bring over, the dreaded chain migration that Trump is trying to stop. (These new Americans have no desire to vote or do Jury Duty, I assure you.)

The test/questions for Citizenship are pitifully inadequate and irrelevant, consisting of basic civic questions (1776, the War of 1812, George Washington) and probe nothing about the real “heart” of America. Instead of asking which states border Canada, they should ask questions which refer to American values, knowledge of cultures different to those of the applicant’s home country, even questions referring to current political issues. For example:

How many illegal immigrants are estimated to currently reside in the United States? (Check one of the below.)

When was the last time you called someone a Jew Bastard? (Fill in date.)

Do you approve of honor killings? (Check yes or no.)

It’s time to move our 19th Century immigrant vetting processes into the 21st Century, or at least start talking about it more, because what we have now sure isn’t working to make us one people. Because of the language barriers, and their ignorance of our political and social do’s and don’ts, we’ve created an underclass of people just sitting on the sidelines, looking in, and staying at the bottom.

At the very least, we should put much more emphasis on the character and spirit of America (with that special emphasis on assimilation) in our immigration processes, so before anyone takes one more step off that plane, they understand that we’re dead serious about it.

Comments 12

It’s very difficult at times to work with and deal with some of those who refuse to learn to read, write and speak English. Our frustration makes them angry rather than trying to understand that we are NOT going to learn their language to make them more comfortable in our country. No matter where they come from, they need to learn to read, write and speak the English language in order to come here and expect us to welcome them.

We must stop the Progressive Socialist Communist Fascist Racist Democrat Party insulting and degrading legal immigrants and promoting and encouraging illegals to break our immigration Laws. They keep trying to use illegals to break more of our laws by illegally voting getting Drivers
License, getting welfare and now this evil party wants illegal criminals to get Medicare and even social security. Our Social security: government
pension plan, is not welfare it is a retirement plan that all WORKING AMERICANS PAY INTO FOR WHEN THEY RETIRE. The Progressive Socialist Communist Fascist Racist Democrat Party has miss used Social Security for the past 70+ years. They stole trillions of dollars and now is almost bankrupt. This not a tax. It was and is a pension plan for only American citizens who worked and paid into it. It is criminal to use it for anything else. There was enough money in it to pay for all the baby boomers Social Security if they live to be 100 just off the interest. Every Government official who stole from it for social programs should be in prison. This waste and misuse must stop and social security must be frozen from being misused by any government official. Send all illegals back to the country they came from and come here following our immigration laws. It’s not racism to want people to be law bidding.

I believe that people should be required to take an “English as a 2nd language” class and have at least a rudimentary ability to communicate before a green card is given, with the same for citizenship. If the classes were paid by government that would be fine because we all benefit.

No matter how this immigration work out the US cannot become a welfare country to these people because we already have too many people here in the US on welfare and the taxpayers cannot stand to take care of our own citizens, let alone the added influx of millions more at the border.. We are finally beginning to find out that we cannot protect all of our “allies” in the world for free and we cannot feed, clothe, educate, house, and give free hospitalization to, or we will become the same kind of country that these people unlawfully overrunning our southern order just came from! Come on people, this mess has to get organized NOW!

I was born in this country, so clearly, I am a perfect American – no tests required. However, had my grandparents – refugees speaking no English – not immigrated, I would not be here. My grandparents worked hard, saved and bought a home, sent their son and daughter to college, and built this country. My point: life experiences and values matter. I feel really lucky to have been born here, grateful to my grandparents, and sympathetic to the refugees of today.

Did your grandparents collect public assistance? Did they commit crime? Did others during that time have to push 1 for English? Did they love their home country more than America? Did they LEARN English once here? Did they scream discrimination and claim America was unfair to them? Did they plot for terrorist activities, as happens today?

Your trying to make a reasonable rebuttable to the article, but you’re failing because you don’t really disagree with it at all. Your example, like millions and millions of others, is of COURSE true.

My grandparents, maternal and paternal, learned enough English to get by. Yes, they worked hard and took nothing from government, but their major contribution to the US came through their children. The short-term view focused only on the immigrant rather than on succeeding generations, is to literally throw out the baby with the bath. Older Americans, and there are more each day, love their entitlements, but once we succeed in shutting down immigration, who will be left to make Social Security and Medicare great again?